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Times Ventura Edition Wins 46 Awards for County Coverage : Honors: Staff writers and photographers capture 16 of 17 first-place prizes. The competition attracted about 200 entries.

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The Ventura County Edition of the Los Angeles Times has won 16 of 17 first-place awards given by the Ventura County Press Club for excellence in daily newspapers.

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The Times captured 16 first-place honors for its local coverage, in categories ranging from best news story to best photo page.

Altogether, the Times won 46 of the 56 prizes given to daily newspapers and in nine categories swept every award. Ventura County Newspapers won six prizes, and the Los Angeles Daily News won four awards.

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The contest drew about 200 entries and was judged by members of the San Diego Press Club. It is the first time that the Ventura County Press Club has held a journalism contest since the 100-member group formed in 1990, said club President Jeff Mitchell.

“I was very gratified by the turnout,” Mitchell said. “It shows that journalists in Ventura County have a high competitive edge and believe in supporting journalism education.”

Proceeds from the contest and awards banquet will benefit the club’s newly formed journalism scholarship fund, Mitchell said. Keynote speaker at the Oct. 7 awards dinner at the Wedgewood Banquet Center in Ventura will be Van Gordon Sauter. He is president of the news division of the Fox Network and former president of the news division of CBS.

Times staffer Daryl Kelley won the most individual awards, picking up seven prizes--including every honor given for investigative journalism. Kelley won first-place awards in two categories, best investigative reporting and best environmental story. Kelley’s piece on questionable tax breaks given to some Ventura County property owners under a state farmland conservation law earned top honors in both categories.

Stephanie Simon, also a staff reporter for the Ventura County Edition of The Times, won the most first-place awards, with four top honors. Simon’s series “60 Acres of Hope,” which follows the progress of one local farming operation for a year, won first place for best news series.

Another agriculture story, on the economics of farming, won Simon first place for best business story. She also won first place in the category of best feature story for “Diary of a Disaster,” which chronicled the effects of the Northridge earthquake in the week following the disaster. And Simon was the lead reporter and writer in the team news reporting category for coverage of the funeral for Alan Winterbourne, the Ventura man shot down by police after killing four people.

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Other Times staffers and correspondents taking first-place wins were: Mack Reed, best news story by a single reporter; Jeff Fletcher and Aaron Curtiss for best sports news story; Steve Henson for best sports feature story; Maia Davis for best military story; Bill Locey for best arts and entertainment story; Phillip Brandes for best arts and entertainment review; Carlos Chavez for best news photo and best photo page or series; Wendy Lamm for best feature photo, and Anne Cusack for best sports photo.

Maureen Magee, a staff writer for Ventura County Newspapers, won the first-place prize for best education story for her reporting on a revenue deal between the Rio Elementary School District and discount chain WalMart and Shopping at the Rose.

Awards were also given in a second division to non-daily newspapers. In that division, four first-place prizes were awarded to Jeff Kass, who was a staffer for the now-defunct Ventura Sun weekly. First-place prizes were also given to Bonnie MacNeill, Lenny Roberts and Tim Dewar of the Ojai Valley News.

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Runner-up awards in the daily newspaper category went to:

Best news story, single reporter: second, Scott Hadly, The Times; honorable mention, Matthew Mosk, The Times.

Best news story, team reporting: second, Daryl Kelley and Scott Hadly, The Times; honorable mention, Daryl Kelley, Jeff McDonald, Matthew Mosk, The Times.

Best feature story: second, Leonard Reed, The Times; honorable mentions, Howard Breuer of the Daily News, Mack Reed and Daryl Kelley, The Times.

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Best sports feature story: second, Steve Henson, The Times; honorable mentions, Steve Henson of The Times, Keith Jajko and Meda Freeman of the Daily News.

Best education story: second, Matthew Mosk, The Times; honorable mentions, Tracy Wilson and Connie Sommer, The Times.

Best business story: second, Fred Alvarez, The Times; honorable mention, Maureen Magee, Ventura County Newspapers.

Best environmental story: second, Chris Woodard, Daily News; honorable mention, Jeff Mitchell, The Times.

Best military story: second, Lauren Dodge, Ventura County Newspapers.

Best arts and entertainment story: second, Lisa McKinnon, Ventura County Newspapers; honorable mentions, Keith Jajko, Daily News, and Lisa McKinnon, Ventura County Newspapers.

Best arts and entertainment review: second, Colleen Cason, Ventura County Newspapers; honorable mentions, Joseph Woodard, Phillip Brandes and Leonard Reed, The Times.

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Best news photo: second, Anne Cusack, The Times; honorable mentions, Helena Pasquarella, Alan Hagman and Carlos Chavez, The Times.

Best feature photo: second, Bruce Huff, The Times; honorable mentions, Spencer Weiner, Carlos Chavez and Alan Hagman, The Times.

Best photo page or series: second, Alan Hagman, The Times; honorable mentions, Alan Hagman and Anne Cusack, The Times.

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